Falcons success will take time to sink in for coach

Elias Palioyiannis has dedicated his life in basketball to the Waverley Falcons to now have led them to NBL1 South and National Championships over the past two weeks which will take some time to sink in.

Palioyiannis' earliest memories at the Waverley Basketball Association stretch back to when he was a 10-year-old and he has gone through his junior playing days, senior playing career and now his coaching journey with the Falcons.

He has been general manager, director of coaching, development manager and head coach of both the Waverley men's and women's teams in the NBL1 South so it's easy to see why the championship success means so much to him.

However, What Palioyiannis is most proud of is the way his playing group led by the likes of Bec Cole, Carley Ernst, Renae Mokrzycki, Amelia Todhunter and the final piece of the puzzle, Mckenzie Forbes all stuck together to bring the championship dreams to reality.

Thoughts to be national champions

Considering where the Falcons were with a 2-8 record mid-season, to then win four finals for the NBL1 South championship and now go up to the Sunshine Coast and win three games to be National Champions is something that will take some time to settle in for Palioyiannis.

"I think it's still a bit surreal right now and will take a while to sink in," he said.

"It's still surreal that we won our championship last week to be totally honest but this is huge for our club. We're not the biggest club around, but we have a lot of hard working people at the club and this is reward for everybody involved."

What it means personally

Palioyiannis has dedicated so much of his life to the Waverley Basketball Association and still remembers first coming down as a 10-year-old.

And even to this day, it takes up so much of his life where he not only coaches the Falcons women's team, but also the men's team in the NBL1 South and he is also part of the club's committee.

That's what makes this championship success over the last two weeks mean so much because of what a huge part of his life Waverley is, and it's dedicated servants like Mike Bullock who was on hand at the Sunshine Coast that continue to spur him on.

"This is huge to be part of," Palioyiannis said.

"I've been at the club since I was 10 with Mike Bullock and he was a lot of the motivation as to why I was so desperate for us to win.

"He has put in such an enormous amount of work for this association. I love this club and I can't speak highly enough of it. It's such an achievement by our basketball club."

Perfect championship game

As far as championship games go, what Waverley produced on Sunday on the Sunshine Coast to score the eventual 48-point win meant everything went as perfectly as Palioyiannis could have imagined.

The Falcons did come into the game with great momentum on the 12-game winning streak including the National Finals wins over Newcastle and Rockingham, but South rivals Bendigo were always going to be another test.

Waverley still had memories of that NBL1 South Grand Final of last year too they had in the back of their minds, and what they produced was a dominant and emphatic performance that was on the back of a brilliant defensive performance.

The Falcons hounded Kelly Wilson in the back court to limit her effectiveness and force her into six turnovers and just one assist on 2/16 shooting while Carley Ernst was huge in holding Megan McKay to 12 points on 4/17 shooting.

Then at the offensive end, Bec Cole was named MVP for her 33 points and six rebounds and while Mckenzie Forbes went scoreless until midway through the second quarter, she hit four threes to close the half on her way to 20 points on 5/11 three-point shooting.

Renae Mokrzycki added 12 points and 13 rebounds, Amelia Todhunter 12 points and eight boards, and then when it was party time Meg Crupi came on to hit a pair of triples for eight quick points.

From a coaching perspective, it couldn’t have gone more to plan for Palioyiannis.

"Absolutely it went to plan for us," he said.

"We had a game plan and the girls really stuck to that game plan really well, and I couldn’t have been happier with how it panned out. It was a great performance against a very, very good team."

Turnaround mid-season

Coming off last year's heartbreaking grand final loss to the Braves and then with import Mckenzie Forbes yet to arrive and Bec Cole and Carley Ernst just finishing a gruelling WNBL season culminating in the championship at the Southside Flyers, it was a tough opening to the NBL1 South.

The Falcons found themselves sitting on a 2-8 record and had a lot of work to do, but the arrival of Forbes, Ernst and Cole getting rolling, and the rest of the team finding their roles meant they came into the finals with great momentum.

The next five weeks now sees them with an NBL1 South and National Championship, and Palioyiannis credits the belief that the players always had topped off with the arrival of Forbes.

"Forbes came in with nine games to go just to qualify and she obviously made a huge difference, but it was about a lot more than just that," Palioyiannis said.

"Even before her arrival we had started to play a bit better. The WNBL players were coming off a championship and that's always really, really hard and it took them a bit of time to get settled back in with us.

"And I think our draw was quite hard early on and we played a lot of the top teams early, but we started to turn the corner. Then Forbes was a massive reason why we were able to get it going."

Great belief even coming from seventh

On the back of winning 11 of the last 12 games of the regular season and despite still having to attack the NBL1 South finals from seventh position, there was a great belief that Palioyiannis and his entire Falcons squad had of what they could do.

That was then on show in their finals performances to beat the Sandringham Sabres, Dandenong Rangers and Mount Gambier Pioneers to make the Grand Final where they went on to beat Keilor Thunder.

On the back of doing that, they arrived on the Sunshine Coast on a 10-game winning streak and left having stretched that to 13 in-a-row and being able to call themselves NBL1 South and NBL1 National Champions.

"I think there's a real maturity about the group. We have a really experienced team where if we cop a 10-0 run we're never going to panic," Palioyiannis said.

"They did a great job of sticking to rules and bought in to the way we wanted to play. We've got three or four players who could average 25 or 27 points a game, but no one averages more than 20.

"Everyone was willing to sacrifice and everyone has now got the reward that they deserved at the end of it."

Impact of Ernst at both ends

Carley Ernst continues to show whether it's in the WNBL, NBL1 South or at the NBL1 National Finals that she is one of the most effective and influential bigs across the country with what she can do at both ends of the floor.

For a five to shoot the ball like she can often is what people will focus on and that was on show in her Grand Final MVP performance against the Keilor Thunder the previous week with her 26 points for the night.

However, on Sunday in the championship game against Bendigo, the defensive job she did standing her ground and staying upright against Meg McKay meant she had as big a say in the final result as anybody.

The numbers for her might not have stood out with six points and six rebounds, but she was a massive reason why McKay shot 4/17 from the field after a dominant first two games on the Sunshine Coast in her basketball return.

Ernst also had four blocks and three steals highlighting her defensive capabilities and Palioyiannis certainly wasn’t surprised with what she did and isn’t worried if she gets the accolades outside she deserves because of how highly she's regarded at Waverley.

"I'm biased, but I think she's the best big across the country. She showed that here again and at both ends of the floor she was excellent," Palioyiannis said.

"This year I was telling her after the game that I think it was her best complete season. Even when we were struggling she was still doing a mountain of work and I do think that she is underrated for whatever reason externally, but internally she definitely isn’t."

Inspiration of Bec Cole

Bec Cole was once again an inspiration in Sunday's championship game against Bendigo just as she has been all season for an NBL1 South championship just as she was with the Southside Flyers for the WNBL championship where she was also co-captain.

She had a remarkable championship game against the Braves too with 33 points, six rebounds and two assists which included 23 of those points in the first half where she set the tone for the contest.

To now be WNBL, NBL1 South and NBL1 champion all at once is something that Palioyiannis couldn’t be happier for Cole to have the reward of experiencing.

"She's an unbelieve person, that's the No. 1 thing and then what she provides as a player is just the bonus on top of that," Palioyiannis said

"She has that contagious personality and she's just a winner. I mean winning three championships in six months is just incredible and she'll look back on that extremely fondly when she stops playing basketball. She's such a superstar on and off the court."